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Security & Strategic Review - May 2016 (ISSN 1741-4202)

EL SALVADOR: Conflicting messages over mara struggle

The government led by President Salvador Sánchez Cerén is sending out mixed messages as it seeks to reduce unprecedented levels of violence in El Salvador by taking the fight to the country’s mara gangs. On the one hand, Sánchez Cerén has boldly stated that his government will “crush” the maras over the next 12 months, fresh from unleashing a 1,000-strong special reaction force (Feres, to use the Spanish initials) which Vice-President Oscar Ortiz said would “hit [the gangs] hard”. On the other hand, this bellicose rhetoric has been offset by the creation of a commission to guarantee respect for human rights while the government implements the ‘extraordinary measures’ approved in mid-March to combat the mara gangs.

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